A group of scientists just found a mysterious hidden “void” in the Great Pyramid of Giza that could finally help us unravel the secrets of this ancient megalithic monument.

Using a cosmic particle detector, they were testing if the equipment could get accurate scans through the pyramid’s thick walls. But instead of seeing what they expected, they saw a large empty space with no obvious entrance. A mysterious floating void with no way in.

Team leader and president of HIP Institute in Paris, Mehdi Tayoubi, explains that they installed special muon-sensitive nuclear-emulsion film at the bottom of the pyramid in the Queen’s Chamber in order to scan the known rooms above it: the King’s Chamber and the Grand Gallery. They saw patterns for these two rooms, plus an anomaly: the “mysterious void.”

“The first reaction was a lot of excitement, but then we knew that it would take us a long, long time, that we needed to be very patient in this scientific process.”— Mehdi Tayoubi, President of HIP Institute in Paris

Now, to make sure this wasn’t some epic fail or expensive prank, they took the time to use two other muon-detection techniques to confirm it. And yes, it turns out the images were correct and they announced their amazing historical discovery!

“All we know is that we have a void, we have a cavity, and it’s huge, which means possibly intentional and certainly worthy of further exploration. In that sense it’s obviously frustrating. On the other hand, as an architectural discovery, something we didn’t know about the interior of the Great Pyramid, it’s absolutely big news.”— Peter Der Manuelian, Harvard Egyptologist

Ancient Mystery

The Great Pyramid of Giza was supposedly made during the reign of Pharaoh Khufu and finished in 2550 BC, but evidence such as fossils and water erosion suggests it’s much older than that.

Dr. Robert M. Schloch was one of the first scientists to really tackle the subject of the plateau structures being older than previously thought. In the early 1990s, he suggested the Sphinx was thousands of years older than typically believed, going back to 5000–9000 B.C., based on water erosion patterns found both on the statue and the surrounding rock.

Some researchers also recognize the amazing ingenuity of the architects who so perfectly measured and cut huge blocks of stone, aligned them with constellations, and perhaps even designed it to generate electricity on a massive scale.

The mysteries of these pyramids are just incredible, really these are amazing examples of a highly sophisticated and advanced civilization. To figure out what they really are we may have to rely on some advanced technology of our own.

Modern Technology: Cosmic X-Ray Vision

Now, the cosmic particles used to scan the pyramids are called muons. They’re similar to electrons but 207 times heavier. When cosmic rays hit our Earth’s atmosphere, they shoot these subatomic particles called muons towards the ground. When passing through objects, they give off some energy and that’s what those strategically placed muon-detectors in the Giza Pyramid recorded. Over several months, scientists collected bits of data zipping through the thick stone blocks and finally create an image. Kind of like a cosmic x-ray photo… a really, really expensive one.

However, the image of this “mysterious void” is not very clear and so they’re not really sure what it is except that it’s above the Grand Gallery, empty, and measures 100 feet long. Some researchers think it could be a construction gap the ancient builders used to access the King’s Chamber and Grand Gallery during the pyramid’s construction.

“The good news is the void is there. Now we are sure that there is a void. We know that this void is big,” says Tayoubi. “I don’t know what it could be. I think it’s now time for Egyptologists and specialists in ancient Egypt architecture to collaborate with us, to provide us with some hypotheses.”— Mehdi Tayoubi, President of HIP Institute in Paris

Cairo University engineer and ScanPyramids team member, Hany Helal is organizing a seminar in Egypt this year for archaeologists to debate the implications of their findings. Hopefully, this will inspire open considerations and deeper insights of the true purpose behind these great pyramids.

With all the ridicule over the theories of ancient aliens building the pyramids, many researchers are scared to make any daring speculations about what this hidden room in the great pyramid could be.

Maybe there’s a giant 100-foot mummy buried there.

Well, whatever it is, this is the greatest discovery inside the Giza pyramid since the 19th century! And I can’t wait to know what they find in there.

So Congratulations! …for Nothing?

Congratulations to the ScanPyramids team! This was the purpose of your project: to reveal the hidden secrets of these magnificent mysterious monuments. And you guys have done that… by finding this big mysterious space of nothingness?

Just teasing! Thank you! You’re like the modern-day Indiana Jones!

There are so many mysterious places around the world to take a closer look at with this kind of cutting-edge technology.